Chapter 48

There is no place where human nature can be studied to better advantage, or public opinion be more quickly ascertained, than inthe office of a railroad president. It helps the railway president if he is also a politician and a man of the world. The experience tends to cynicism and cultivates the theory which gives too great prominence to the influence of association and point of view in fixing creeds, faiths, churchmanship and partizanship. The visitor always tried to make the president believe that he came for some other purpose than the real object of his mission. Why men believe they can succeed better in what they seek by this sort of fraud, is a mystery. The most curious exhibit is the man of many millions, who pretends that he wishes to consult you in regard to investments in the securities of your company, and ends by asking for a pass.—Chauncey M. Depew.

(1635)

Inspection, Careful Food—SeeBuying, Good.

INSPIRATION

The following lines on “Inspiration” were penned by Bishop Doane, of Albany, N. Y.:

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy,With his marble block before him;And his face lit up with a smile of joyAs an angel dream passed o’er him.He carved that dream on the yielding stoneWith many a sharp incision;In heaven’s own light the sculptor shone,He had caught that angel vision.Sculptors of life are we, as we stand,With our lives uncarved before us;Waiting the hour when, at God’s command,Our life dream passes o’er us.Let us carve it then on the yielding stone,With many a sharp incision;Its heavenly beauty shall be our own—Our lives, that angel vision.

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy,

With his marble block before him;

And his face lit up with a smile of joy

As an angel dream passed o’er him.

He carved that dream on the yielding stone

With many a sharp incision;

In heaven’s own light the sculptor shone,

He had caught that angel vision.

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand,With our lives uncarved before us;Waiting the hour when, at God’s command,Our life dream passes o’er us.Let us carve it then on the yielding stone,With many a sharp incision;Its heavenly beauty shall be our own—Our lives, that angel vision.

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand,

With our lives uncarved before us;

Waiting the hour when, at God’s command,

Our life dream passes o’er us.

Let us carve it then on the yielding stone,

With many a sharp incision;

Its heavenly beauty shall be our own—

Our lives, that angel vision.

(1636)

Inspiration from Things Done—SeeAbility, Gage of.

INSPIRATION OF EVENTS

On the 19th of April, 1861, some of the enthusiastic Southern sympathizers of Baltimore, driven frantic by the passage of Northern troops through the city for the invasion of the South, attacked the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts volunteers with bricks and stones as they marched along Pratt Street to take the train at Camden Station for Washington. The soldiers, who were fully armed with Springfield rifles, fired upon the citizens, killing several and wounding many others, some of whom had taken no part in the affray, but were merely distant spectators.When this news was flashed around the land, it reached a young Baltimorean, a professor in Poydras College at Pointe Coupée, one hundred and twenty miles above New Orleans. His heart fired with patriotic enthusiasm and the great thoughts that surged through his mind kept him awake all night. At dawn he sat down at his desk and wrote “Maryland, My Maryland.” It was first published in the New OrleansDelta. In a few weeks it was copied by all the leading newspapers of the South, and James R. Randall, like Byron, awoke one morning and found himself famous.

When this news was flashed around the land, it reached a young Baltimorean, a professor in Poydras College at Pointe Coupée, one hundred and twenty miles above New Orleans. His heart fired with patriotic enthusiasm and the great thoughts that surged through his mind kept him awake all night. At dawn he sat down at his desk and wrote “Maryland, My Maryland.” It was first published in the New OrleansDelta. In a few weeks it was copied by all the leading newspapers of the South, and James R. Randall, like Byron, awoke one morning and found himself famous.

(1637)

INSPIRATION, SOURCE OF

A soul that is sensitive to truth is easily excited to emotion and incited to effort. Haydn, it is said, had his musical genius aroused by the brilliancy of a diamond ring he wore, the gift of Frederick the Great.

We confer a greater blessing on our fellow men when by any act, or even by any look, we draw out what is in them, than when we bestow any gift or favor upon them.

(1638)

The famous operatic composers had different methods of getting inspiration for their immortal compositions. One could not write the score unless he had a cat upon his shoulders. There are in his symphonies suggestions of an orchestra which every one of us born in the country recognizes as the familiar strain of a summer’s night; another could stir his genius best at the billiard-table, and in his refrains is heard the rattling fire of the ivory balls; while a third, by walks in the woods and communing with nature, transferred to the orchestra and chorus the sublime secrets of creation.—Chauncey M. Depew.

(1639)

INSTABILITY

Society is curst with young men and women who are driven and tossed by every wind. I would as soon think of anchoring an ocean-liner to a fog-bank instead of a rock as to anchor a reform, a useful club, a great movement or church to their lives and leadership.—N. D. Hillis.

(1640)

INSTINCT

Man is gifted with the supreme endowment of reason. This marks humanity off from all the rest of the animal creation. But the Creator institutes a law of compensation. There are certain powers and faculties in inferior creatures which have never been evolved in man, and which are plainly evidences of supernatural power applied for the benefit of beings denied the prerogative of reason.

How does it come about that if a salmon is taken when only a few months old from its native fjord on the coast of Norway, and marked and then sent into the sea again, it may, after traversing the ocean for thousands of miles, be found again the next year in that same fjord? It has returned without fail to its birthplace. The reason is that God gave it a miraculous guide-book called instinct. How comes it that when, in a beehive, the temperature rises so that the wax might melt, every tenth bee glues its feet down to the board, and fans with its wings at a tremendous velocity as long as may be necessary? It is because God gave this little creature the same infallible guide-book. How is it that the same pairs of swallows return all the way from Africa to rear a fresh family in the same old nests under the eaves? It is because that same miraculous instinct led them unerringly. (Text.)

(1641)

INSTINCT ADAPTED TO EMERGENCY

In guarding against evils should we not be as fertile in expedients to adapt our defense to the kind of weapons we possess as some cattle are:

The plainsmen on Western cattle-ranches have called attention to an illustration of the adaptability of animal instinct to emergencies.The cattle of former days were of the long-horned kind. When the herd was threatened with an attack by wolves, the calves were placed in the middle of the bunch and the older animals formed themselves into a solid phalanx about them, all facing outward.The cattle of to-day are largely hornless. If, as occasionally happens still, the herd is attacked by wolves, the calves are guarded as before, but the herd faces in instead of out. Their hoofs, not their horns, are now their weapons.

The plainsmen on Western cattle-ranches have called attention to an illustration of the adaptability of animal instinct to emergencies.

The cattle of former days were of the long-horned kind. When the herd was threatened with an attack by wolves, the calves were placed in the middle of the bunch and the older animals formed themselves into a solid phalanx about them, all facing outward.

The cattle of to-day are largely hornless. If, as occasionally happens still, the herd is attacked by wolves, the calves are guarded as before, but the herd faces in instead of out. Their hoofs, not their horns, are now their weapons.

(1642)

Instinct of Animals—SeeFaith Better Than Sight.

Instinct of Insects—SeeShelter.

INSTINCT, THE HOMING

A well-known minister of Austin, Texas, retells a story which was related to him by a friend living in Lawrence, Massachusetts:“He raised a dog, crossed with hound and pointer, and littered in Lawrence. When a year old he took the young dog to Boston, got on board of a sailing-vessel, went by sea and river to Bangor, Maine, drove forty miles into the woods at Cleveland’s Camp and hunted there two weeks, the dog proving to be a great success for quick, fast runs and returns to camp.“After the hunting was over and while on his back trip to Bangor, the dog jumped from the wagon into the bushes, having heard or smelled a deer, and went off on a hot chase. The boats ran only once in two weeks, so that, much as he valued the dog, it was necessary to go on. He took the boat at Bangor, returned by river and sea to Boston and back to Lawrence. About two weeks afterward the dog crawled into his yard, footsore and half-starved, but safe at home and glad to get back.” (Text.)—Harper’s Weekly.

A well-known minister of Austin, Texas, retells a story which was related to him by a friend living in Lawrence, Massachusetts:

“He raised a dog, crossed with hound and pointer, and littered in Lawrence. When a year old he took the young dog to Boston, got on board of a sailing-vessel, went by sea and river to Bangor, Maine, drove forty miles into the woods at Cleveland’s Camp and hunted there two weeks, the dog proving to be a great success for quick, fast runs and returns to camp.

“After the hunting was over and while on his back trip to Bangor, the dog jumped from the wagon into the bushes, having heard or smelled a deer, and went off on a hot chase. The boats ran only once in two weeks, so that, much as he valued the dog, it was necessary to go on. He took the boat at Bangor, returned by river and sea to Boston and back to Lawrence. About two weeks afterward the dog crawled into his yard, footsore and half-starved, but safe at home and glad to get back.” (Text.)—Harper’s Weekly.

(1643)

SeeDirection, Sense of.

Instruction—SeeFood and Exercise.

INSTRUMENTS

When Saladin looked at the sword of Richard the Lion-Hearted, he wondered that a blade so ordinary should have wrought such mighty deeds. The English King bared his arm and said: “It was not the sword that did these things; it was the arm of Richard.”

(1644)

INSTRUMENTS, IMPORTANCE OF GOOD

Dr. Z. F. Vaughn, well known in medical and scientific circles, has perfected a process for tempering to the hardness of steel the ductile metals, gold, silver and copper. Already Dr. Vaughn is manufacturing a large number of gold-bladed scalpels, probes, hypodermicand suture needles and other surgical instruments. These are replacing similar articles of steel.The sharp edge of a gold blade is almost perfectly smooth; that of steel, no matter how fine the edge, is rough and saw-like. Because it is porous, the steel blade has never made a perfect surgical instrument. In the meshes of that metal may be hidden the infinitesimal germs of a virulent disease, or there may be a rust spot so tiny that it could not be discerned by the surgeon, but which might be sufficient seriously to poison the tissues in which the knife makes a wound, resulting in blood-poisoning that would cause death. In gold, being dense, this danger does not exist, and gold does not rust.Besides, the gold blade divides evenly the flesh or tissue which it cuts; the steel blade really saws or tears its way through. Therefore, even when there is no infection, the wound made with a steel instrument does not heal nearly so readily as that made with gold. Another feature of a gold blade is that the wound which it makes leaves no scar.

The sharp edge of a gold blade is almost perfectly smooth; that of steel, no matter how fine the edge, is rough and saw-like. Because it is porous, the steel blade has never made a perfect surgical instrument. In the meshes of that metal may be hidden the infinitesimal germs of a virulent disease, or there may be a rust spot so tiny that it could not be discerned by the surgeon, but which might be sufficient seriously to poison the tissues in which the knife makes a wound, resulting in blood-poisoning that would cause death. In gold, being dense, this danger does not exist, and gold does not rust.

Besides, the gold blade divides evenly the flesh or tissue which it cuts; the steel blade really saws or tears its way through. Therefore, even when there is no infection, the wound made with a steel instrument does not heal nearly so readily as that made with gold. Another feature of a gold blade is that the wound which it makes leaves no scar.

(1645)

INSULATION

In 1846 Werner Siemens, of Berlin, discovered the non-conducting properties of gutta-percha. He coated several miles of copper wire with gutta-percha, and submerged it in the Rhine from Deutz to Cologne. Electric communication was thus established beneath the water from shore to shore. In 1850 a submarine cable was laid across the English Channel from Dover to Cape Grisnez. It consisted of a half-inch copper wire covered with nothing but gutta-percha, and loaded with lead to keep it down. The communication was perfect for a day, and then the wire refused to act. The electrical engineers were unable to explain the facts. At last the mystery was dissipated by a fisherman. A French fisherman set his trawl off Cape Grisnez. When he hauled it in, he picked up the submerged cable, from which he cut off a piece. This piece he carried in triumph to Bologne, where he exhibited it as a specimen of rare seaweed with its center filled with gold. The ignorant man had mistaken the copper wire for gold, but unwittingly he had served the electricians. They saw from the accident that it was not sufficient perfectly to insulate the cable, but that it must also be protected. In 1851 there was laid across the Channel a cable twenty-four miles long, consisting of four copper wires, insulated by gutta-percha, covered with tarred yarn, and protected by an outer covering of galvanized iron wires. That submarine cable proved a success, and ocean telegraphy became possible through an accident which compelled invention.—Youth’s Companion.

(1646)

INTEGRITY

Stephen V. White, a New York financier, became involved and only able to pay thirty-five cents on the dollar. His character for honesty and integrity was so established that his creditors gave him an absolute, legal release from an indebtedness of almost a million. Within about a year he repaid principal and interest.—James T. White, “Character Lessons.”

(1647)

INTEGRITY, EVIDENCE OF

Samuel Appleton, when twenty-eight years old, began the business of cotton manufacturing. He was incapable of anything indirect or underhand. He knew but one way of speaking, and that was to speak the truth. As an evidence of the way in which he was regarded: when a note purporting to be signed by him was pronounced by him a forgery, altho no one was able to distinguish one handwriting from the other, the jury found a verdict in his favor, because they were quite sure that Mr. Appleton would not dispute the payment except upon the certainty of his not making it.—James T. White, “Character Lessons.”

(1648)

Intelligence—SeeKnowledge Values.

INTELLIGENCE, ANIMAL

One of the many delusions engendered by our human self-conceit and habit of considering the world as only such as we know it from our human point of view, is that of supposing human intelligence to be the only kind of intelligence in existence. The fact is, that what we call the lower animals have special intelligence of their own as far transcending our intelligence as our peculiar reasoning intelligence exceeds theirs. We are as incapable of following the track of a friend by the smell of his footsteps as a dog is of writing a metaphysical treatise. (Text.)—W. Mattieu Williams, “Science in Short Chapters.”

(1649)

Intelligence in Creation—SeeDesign in Nature.

Intelligence in Rooks—SeeEnemies, Avoiding.

INTELLIGENCE IN SOLDIERS

The American Army is regarded as formidable because “its bayonets think.” That they thought and acted to some purpose was shown in many exigencies of the Civil war, as the following, told by Gen. Carl Schurz:

One of General Butler’s staff-officers told me a little story which illustrates the character of our volunteer regiments. When our troops took possession of Annapolis, there was but one locomotive in the railroad shop, and that locomotive had been partly taken to pieces by the “rebel sympathizers” of the place, in order to make it unfit for use. A volunteer regiment was drawn up in line, and men who thought themselves able to repair a locomotive were called for. A dozen or more privates stept forward, and one of them exclaimed: “Why, that locomotive was built in my shop!” In a short time the locomotive was again in working order.

(1650)

Intelligence in Storks—SeeFamily Offense in Storks.

INTELLIGENCE OUTDOING IGNORANCE

In Togoland there is a large tree which is worshiped by all the inhabitants as a god named Azago. He is the giver of children, and crops, and all blessings. No one is permitted to eat fresh yams until the priest of Azago announces that the god has partaken of them. A dreadful fatality will follow such a disobedience. One year a pupil in a mission school ate a yam before the appointed time, and his distracted parents looked for his death and for all calamities to come—but the boy prospered and grew fat, and none of his kindred died. The next year all the children of that mission school ate yams before permission was given by the priest of Azago, and none perished. The people wanted also to eat, but the priest warned them that the God of the mission schools was greater than Azago, so the mission children could eat yams with impunity, but not so the general populace. But from that time the power of the superstition declined, and recently when one of the priests died the elders decided to forsake Azago and serve the living, true God. (Text.)

(1651)

INTEMPERANCE

Lilla N. Cushman furnished to the ChicagoSuna bit of verse for possible blackboard use on the wine glass:

There’s danger in the glass! Bewarelest it enslaves. They who have drainedit find, alas! too often, early graves.It sparkles to allure, with its rich, rubylight; there is no antidote or cure,only its course to fight. It changesmen to brutes; makes women bowtheir head; fills homes with anguish,want, disputes, and takesfrom children bread. Thendash the glass away, andfrom the serpent flee;drink pure, cold waterdaybyday,andwalkGod’s footstool free.(Text.)

There’s danger in the glass! Beware

lest it enslaves. They who have drained

it find, alas! too often, early graves.

It sparkles to allure, with its rich, ruby

light; there is no antidote or cure,

only its course to fight. It changes

men to brutes; makes women bow

their head; fills homes with anguish,

want, disputes, and takes

from children bread. Then

dash the glass away, and

from the serpent flee;

drink pure, cold water

day

day,

and

walk

God’s footstool free.(Text.)

(1652)

“Will alcohol dissolve sugar?”“It will,” replied Old Soak; “it will dissolve gold and brick houses, and horses, and happiness, and love and everything else worth having.” (Text.)—HoustonPost.

“Will alcohol dissolve sugar?”

“It will,” replied Old Soak; “it will dissolve gold and brick houses, and horses, and happiness, and love and everything else worth having.” (Text.)—HoustonPost.

(1653)

SeeBeer, Effect of;Drink, Drunkenness;Evidence, Living;Inebriety, Incurable;Side, Choosing the Right.

INTEMPERANCE IN OLD DAYS

When wooden ship-building was the staple trade of the river Wear, in England, says an English exchange, when an extra-sized ship was launched all the day-schools in the town got a holiday. It was on these occasions that the ship-builders provided an unlimited supply of beer to all comers, and it was a recognized rule of Wearside that members of the churches or chapel were privileged to get drunk without losing their membership.

(1654)

In medieval times the farmers brewed good brown ale and took it to the churchyard in barrels, which were tapped on the spot. The neighbors then said to one another: “Come hither; there be a church-ale toward yonder.” They paid for the beer, and the rector’s churchwarden kept the tale of incoming moneys. Easter-ales, Whitsun-ales, church-ales, even bride-ales to help a penniless marriage—allwere merry meetings in churchyard or church which all the inhabitants were bidden to attend at a charge of one penny. Tho they had grown to unruly revels, they were not finally supprest till the time of the Commonwealth.—Edward Gilliat, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

(1655)

INTEMPERANCE IN SONS

Rev. W. F. Crafts says:

Recently, in a New England manufacturing city, we noted a change that bodes no good for business or politics or religion. We found that the old men who founded and developed the mills were all total abstainers and had been from youth, but their sons, who were succeeding to these great responsibilities, had nearly all of them come back from college with drinking habits.

Intemperate Living—SeeLongevity Accounted for.

INTENSITY

In the concluding chapters of Ellen Terry’s memoirs (McClure’s Magazine), she writes of the last days of Henry Irving. The doctor had warned Irving not to play “The Bells” again after an illness that attacked him in the spring of 1905. He saw the “terrible emotional strain ‘The Bells’ put upon Henry”—how he never could play the part ofMatthias“on his head,” as he couldLouis XI, for example. Miss Terry goes on in words almost implying thatMatthiaskilled him. We read:“Every time he heard the sound of bells, the throbbing of his heart must have nearly killed him. He used always to turn quite white—there was no trick about it. It was imagination acting physically on the body.“His death asMatthias—the death of a strong, robust man—was different from all his other stage deaths. He did really almost die—he imagined his death with such horrible intensity. His eyes would disappear upward, his face grow gray, his limbs cold.“No wonder, then, that the first time that the Wolverhampton doctor’s warning was disregarded, and Henry played ‘The Bells,’ at Bradford, his heart could not stand the strain. Within twenty-four hours of his death asMatthias, he was dead.”

“Every time he heard the sound of bells, the throbbing of his heart must have nearly killed him. He used always to turn quite white—there was no trick about it. It was imagination acting physically on the body.

“His death asMatthias—the death of a strong, robust man—was different from all his other stage deaths. He did really almost die—he imagined his death with such horrible intensity. His eyes would disappear upward, his face grow gray, his limbs cold.

“No wonder, then, that the first time that the Wolverhampton doctor’s warning was disregarded, and Henry played ‘The Bells,’ at Bradford, his heart could not stand the strain. Within twenty-four hours of his death asMatthias, he was dead.”

(1657)

INTENTION

While “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” we can never fully manifest the best that is in us. Benjamin R. Bulkeley tells us in the following verse that God knows how much better we intend than we can do:

There was never a song that was sung by thee,But a sweeter one was meant to be.There was never a deed that was grandly done,But a greater was meant by some earnest one,For the sweetest voice can never impartThe song that trembles within the heart.And the brain and the hand can never quite doThe thing that the soul has fondly in view.And hence are the tears and the burdens of pain,For the shining goals are never to gain,But enough that a God can hear and seeThe song and the deed that were meant to be.

There was never a song that was sung by thee,

But a sweeter one was meant to be.

There was never a deed that was grandly done,

But a greater was meant by some earnest one,

For the sweetest voice can never impart

The song that trembles within the heart.

And the brain and the hand can never quite doThe thing that the soul has fondly in view.And hence are the tears and the burdens of pain,For the shining goals are never to gain,But enough that a God can hear and seeThe song and the deed that were meant to be.

And the brain and the hand can never quite do

The thing that the soul has fondly in view.

And hence are the tears and the burdens of pain,

For the shining goals are never to gain,

But enough that a God can hear and see

The song and the deed that were meant to be.

(1658)

Interception—SeeInterruption.

Intercession—SeeSacrificial Mediation.

INTERDEPENDENCE

Every great newspaper periodically announces its dependence upon immature, half-grown boys, whose nimble steps and strident voices secure its circulation. The brain which forges the editorial, the skill which administers the counting-room, however great, imposing, or commanding, must doff its hat of necessity to the barefooted newsboy and confess its obligation to him in his obscurity for its chance to reach its constituency.—Nehemiah Boynton.

(1659)

SeeSolidarity;Survival of the Fittest.

Interest in Religious Education—SeeAdapting the Bible.

Interest, Intense—SeeBook, Influence of a.

INTEREST, SIGNIFICANT

I have often been appealed to by friends, who said: “Can’t you take this young man and give him employment?” Then I will watch that young man for a month or so and see what it is that he takes up in the morning. If he takes up the newspaper and turns to the political part of the paper, and is interested in that, why that is a good symptom of his intellectual tendencies; but if, instead of that, he takes up a magazineand sits down to read a love story, why you can not make a newspaper man out of him.—Charles A. Dana.

(1660)

Interests, The Functioning of—SeeAtrophy.

Internationalism—SeeStatesmanship.

Interpretation and Individuality—SeeIndividuality in Interpretation.

INTERPRETATION BY EXPERIENCE

A little boy who was born blind had an operation performed which enabled him to see. His mother led him out into the fields, and uncovered his eyes for the first time, and let him look upon the sky and trees and grass and flowers. “Oh, mother!” he cried, “why didn’t you tell me it was so beautiful?” “I tried to tell you, dear,” was her answer, “but you could not understand me.”

So it is sometimes with great verses in the Bible. When we read them first or commit them to memory, we do not understand, but after, when they fit the heart life and our eyes are opened, we wonder at the beauty of them.—Phebe Palmer.

(1661)

Interpretation by Love—SeeLove, Interpretation by.

INTERRUPTION

It is to be feared that much of the force of God’s spirit is cut off by the world’s atmosphere before it reaches a soul that is immersed in worldliness:

The greatest difficulty in arriving at a correct conception of the amount of heat received from the sun lies in the fact that all such measures must be made at the earth’s surface. Before reaching the apparatus the sun’s rays pass through many miles of atmosphere; the heat and light are absorbed and only a small portion of the original energy of the rays actually reaches the surface and becomes effective in heating the water of our apparatus.—Charles Lane Poor, “The Solar System.”

(1662)

In “One Word More” Browning tells us that Dante “once prepared to paint an angel”; but “certain people of importance” broke in upon him, and so, much to the poet’s and the world’s regret, we can never see that angel he might have wrought.Perhaps the very serious power of interruptions, and what we may call their irreligiousness, has been too little appreciated. Florence Nightingale recognized the possible harm done to an invalid by making any abrupt change in his condition. “You may suffocate him by giving him his food suddenly; but, if you rub his lips gently with a spoon, and thus attract his attention, he will swallow the food with perfect safety. Thus it is with the brain.” Miss Nightingale adds acutely, “I have never known persons who exposed themselves for years to constant interruption who did not muddle away their intellects by it at last.”

Perhaps the very serious power of interruptions, and what we may call their irreligiousness, has been too little appreciated. Florence Nightingale recognized the possible harm done to an invalid by making any abrupt change in his condition. “You may suffocate him by giving him his food suddenly; but, if you rub his lips gently with a spoon, and thus attract his attention, he will swallow the food with perfect safety. Thus it is with the brain.” Miss Nightingale adds acutely, “I have never known persons who exposed themselves for years to constant interruption who did not muddle away their intellects by it at last.”

(1663)

SeeHappiness.

INTERVENTION, DIVINE

A large number of Russian criminals were standing in the courtyard of their prison, chained together, and about starting for their long journey to Siberia. Among them was one Christian Stundist, sharing their banishment because he had spoken to his fellow workmen about the faith in Christ he profest. His fellow prisoners were jeering him about it, saying: “You are no better off than we. You are wearing the bracelets (handcuffs) as we do; if your God is of any use to you, why doesn’t he knock off your chains and set you free?” The man reverently replied, “If the Lord will He can set me free even now; and tho my hands are chained my heart is free.” At that moment his name was called; a paper had just been received granting him a full pardon. He was then told to stand aside; his chains were struck off. At the same time the prison gates were thrown open and all the rest of the convicts filed out, the Stundist remaining behind with permission to return to his family and friends. It is said the prisoners were perfectly awestricken with what they had witnessed. Unknown to the Stundist, a Christian lady had obtained his pardon, and God had ordered its arrival at the critical moment.

(1664)

But for the divine vigilance, an unseen Helper, what youth but would go down! In every hour when Achilles is about to be overborne by the number and strength of his enemies, Homer makes some goddess appear to lift a shield above the hero for protection. Again and again Thetis stands between her son and the enemy. Of your youth, how true it is that God hath interfered in your behalf!—N. D. Hillis.

(1665)

INTIMACY WITH CHRIST

When the great artist, Sir Alma-Tadema, was painting his “Heliogabalus,” which made a sensation during its exhibition at the British Royal Academy, and in which roses are a prominent feature, he was in the habit of receiving from Italy a fresh box of roses twice a week, so that he literally and actually had a new model for every individual blossom.

If the painter must live in close and delicate touch with nature, much more must the messenger of Christ abide in direct communion with the Savior if he would catch the virtue, the color and the aroma of celestial things. (Text.)

(1666)

INTOLERANCE

We should be thankful that such conditions as those described below no longer exist:

No religious meetings outside the ordinary services of the Church could be held without a license under the Toleration Act; and those taking part in such meetings, in order to secure the right to hold them, had to register themselves as Dissenters. This law extended to America, and so the first Methodist Church in the United States was adorned with that very unecclesiastical bit of architecture—a chimney. When a Methodist church was built it had to disguise itself as a house in order to secure the right to exist.—W. H. Fitchett, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1667)

In a dark wood where wild beasts lived there once lay a man’s boot. How it came there, I can not say, for no man had been there—at least the wild beasts had not seen one in all their lives. But there the boot was, and when the beasts saw it they all came round to find out what it was. Such a thing was quite new to them; but they were not much at a loss for all that.“Well, there is no doubt as to what it is, I say,” said the bear.“Oh, of course not,” said the wolf and the goat and all the beasts and birds in one breath.“Of course,” said the bear, “it is the rind of some kind of fruit off a tree—the fruit of the cork, I should say. This is cork, it is plain to see,” and he showed the sole of the boot.“Oh, just hear him! just hear him!” cried all the beasts and birds.“It is not that at all,” said the wolf, with a glance of scorn at the bear. “Of course it is some kind of nest. Look; here is the hole for the bird to go in at, and here is the deep part for the eggs and young ones to be safe. No doubt at all, of course not!”“Oh, oh!” cried the bear and the goat and all the birds and beasts, “just hear what he says! It is not that at all.”“I should think not,” said the goat. “It is quite a plain case. Look at this long root,” and he showed the string at the side of the boot. “It is the root of a plant, of course.”“Not a bit of it,” cried the wolf and the bear; “not a bit of it. A root? How can you say so? It is not that, we can all see.”“If I might speak,” said an old owl, who sat in a tree near, “I think I can tell you what it is. I have been in a land where there are more of such things than you could count. It is a man’s boot.”“A what?” cried all the beasts and birds. “What is a man? and what is a boot?”“A man,” said the owl, “is a thing with two legs that can walk and eat and talk, like us; but he can do much more than we can.”“Pooh, pooh!” cried they all.“That can’t be true,” said the beasts. “How can a thing with two legs do more than we can, who have four? It is false, of course.”“Of course it is if they have no wings,” said the birds.“Well,” went on the owl, “they have no wings, and yet it is true. And they can make things like this, and they call them boots and put them on their feet.”“Oh, oh!” cried all the beasts and birds at once. “How can you? For shame. Fie on you! That is not true, of course. It can not be.”“A likely story!” said the bear.“Can do more than we can?” said the wolf.“Wear things on their feet?” cried they all. “On the face of it your story is not true. We know that such things are not worn on the feet. How could they be?”“Of course they could not,” said the bear; “it is false.”“It must be false,” cried all the birds and beasts. “You must leave the wood,” they said to the owl. “What you say can not be true. You are not fit to live with us. You have said what you know is false. It must be, of course.”And they chased the poor old owl out ofthe wood, and would not let him come back.“It is true for all that,” said the owl.And so it was.—The Nursery.

“Well, there is no doubt as to what it is, I say,” said the bear.

“Oh, of course not,” said the wolf and the goat and all the beasts and birds in one breath.

“Of course,” said the bear, “it is the rind of some kind of fruit off a tree—the fruit of the cork, I should say. This is cork, it is plain to see,” and he showed the sole of the boot.

“Oh, just hear him! just hear him!” cried all the beasts and birds.

“It is not that at all,” said the wolf, with a glance of scorn at the bear. “Of course it is some kind of nest. Look; here is the hole for the bird to go in at, and here is the deep part for the eggs and young ones to be safe. No doubt at all, of course not!”

“Oh, oh!” cried the bear and the goat and all the birds and beasts, “just hear what he says! It is not that at all.”

“I should think not,” said the goat. “It is quite a plain case. Look at this long root,” and he showed the string at the side of the boot. “It is the root of a plant, of course.”

“Not a bit of it,” cried the wolf and the bear; “not a bit of it. A root? How can you say so? It is not that, we can all see.”

“If I might speak,” said an old owl, who sat in a tree near, “I think I can tell you what it is. I have been in a land where there are more of such things than you could count. It is a man’s boot.”

“A what?” cried all the beasts and birds. “What is a man? and what is a boot?”

“A man,” said the owl, “is a thing with two legs that can walk and eat and talk, like us; but he can do much more than we can.”

“Pooh, pooh!” cried they all.

“That can’t be true,” said the beasts. “How can a thing with two legs do more than we can, who have four? It is false, of course.”

“Of course it is if they have no wings,” said the birds.

“Well,” went on the owl, “they have no wings, and yet it is true. And they can make things like this, and they call them boots and put them on their feet.”

“Oh, oh!” cried all the beasts and birds at once. “How can you? For shame. Fie on you! That is not true, of course. It can not be.”

“A likely story!” said the bear.

“Can do more than we can?” said the wolf.

“Wear things on their feet?” cried they all. “On the face of it your story is not true. We know that such things are not worn on the feet. How could they be?”

“Of course they could not,” said the bear; “it is false.”

“It must be false,” cried all the birds and beasts. “You must leave the wood,” they said to the owl. “What you say can not be true. You are not fit to live with us. You have said what you know is false. It must be, of course.”

And they chased the poor old owl out ofthe wood, and would not let him come back.

“It is true for all that,” said the owl.

And so it was.—The Nursery.

(1668)

INTRODUCTIONS

Some introductions to sermons, speeches, articles, etc., would gain if they were made as brief as the speech of this mayor:

“Long introductions when a man has a speech to make are a bore,” said former Senator John C. Spooner, according toThe Saturday Evening Post. “I have had all kinds, but the most satisfactory one in my career was that of a German mayor of a small town in my State, Wisconsin.“I was to make a political address, and the opera-house was crowded. When it came time to begin, the mayor got up.“‘Mine friends,’ he said, ‘I have been asked to introduce Senator Spooner, who is to make a speech, yes. Vell, I haf dit so, und he vill now do so.’”

“I was to make a political address, and the opera-house was crowded. When it came time to begin, the mayor got up.

“‘Mine friends,’ he said, ‘I have been asked to introduce Senator Spooner, who is to make a speech, yes. Vell, I haf dit so, und he vill now do so.’”

(1669)

Intruders—SeeIngratitude.

Intrusion—SeeTrivial Causes.

INTUITION

What is true in music, according to R. H. Haweis, is equally true of all intuitive processes:

To accompany well you must not only be a good musician, but you must be mesmeric, sympathetic, intuitive. You must know what I want before I tell you; you must feel which way my spirit sets, for the motions of the soul are swift as an angel’s flight. I can not pause in those quick and subtle transitions of emotion, fancy, passion, to tell you a secret; if it is not yours already, you are unworthy of it. Your finishing lessons in music can do nothing for you. Your case is hopeless. You have not enough music in you to know that you are a failure.

(1670)

INTUITIVE JUDGMENT

Mill cites the following case, which is worth noting as an instance of the extreme delicacy and accuracy to which may be developed this power of sizing up the significant factors of a situation. A Scotch manufacturer procured from England, at a high rate of wages, a working dyer famous for producing very fine colors, with the view of teaching to his other workmen the same skill. The workman came; but his method of proportioning the ingredients, in which lay the secret of the effects he produced, was by taking them up in handfuls, while the common method was to weigh them. The manufacturer sought to make him turn his handling system into an equivalent weighing system, that the general principles of his peculiar mode of proceeding might be ascertained. This, however, the man found himself quite unable to do, and could therefore impart his own skill to nobody. He had, from individual cases of his own experience, established a connection in his mind between fine effects of color and tactual perceptions in handling his dyeing materials; and from these perceptions he could, in any particular case, infer the means to be employed and the effects which would be produced.—John Dewey, “How We Think.”

(1671)

Invention—SeeAmbition.

Invention and Employment—SeeValue of One Man.

Inventions—SeeLabor-saving Devices.

Inventions, Worthless—SeeDisappointment.

Inventive Possibilities—SeeFuture Possibilities.

INVESTMENT RETURN

The Rev. John F. Goucher established many vernacular Christian schools in the villages of India.

An American traveler in northern India, strolling on the platform when the train had come to a standstill, saw a native who drew near, eyed him closely, then fell before him, clasped him about the ankles, and beating his feet with his head, cried, “I am your servant, and you are my savior!”The traveler bade the man get up and say what he had to say. The native at length exprest himself: “You are Dr. Goucher, of America, are you not? All that I am and have I owe to you. Hearing that you were traveling through on this train, I walked more than twenty miles just to see your train pass. Now God has let me look into your face.”Thousands of young Indians in the north-west provinces of India call themselves “Goucher Boys,” and look upon a man in distant America, whom they have never seen, as their friend and emancipator.—William T. Ellis, “Men and Missions.”

The traveler bade the man get up and say what he had to say. The native at length exprest himself: “You are Dr. Goucher, of America, are you not? All that I am and have I owe to you. Hearing that you were traveling through on this train, I walked more than twenty miles just to see your train pass. Now God has let me look into your face.”

Thousands of young Indians in the north-west provinces of India call themselves “Goucher Boys,” and look upon a man in distant America, whom they have never seen, as their friend and emancipator.—William T. Ellis, “Men and Missions.”

(1672)

INVESTMENT, SAFE

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